Security Halt!
Welcome to Security Halt! Podcast, the show dedicated to Veterans, Active Duty Service Members, and First Responders. Hosted by retired Green Beret Deny Caballero, this podcast dives deep into the stories of resilience, triumph, and the unique challenges faced by those who serve.
Through powerful interviews and candid discussions, Security Halt! Podcast highlights vital resources, celebrates success stories, and offers actionable tools to navigate mental health, career transitions, and personal growth.
Join us as we stand shoulder-to-shoulder, proving that even after the mission changes, the call to serve and thrive never ends.
Security Halt!
Green Beret Matt Weaver on PTS, Resilience & the Life-Changing Power of Community Support
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Green Beret Matt Weaver Tried Everything—Until One Procedure Changed His Life | Security Halt! Podcast
What if one procedure could help unlock healing after years of suffering?
In this impactful episode of Security Halt!, host Deny Caballero sits down with Matt Weaver, former Green Beret and veteran advocate, to talk about the real cost of service—and what it takes to rebuild after trauma.
Matt shares his deeply personal story:
· 🎖️ Life as a Green Beret and the invisible wounds of war
· ⚠️ His battle with post-traumatic stress and the breaking point that changed everything
· 🧠 The Dual Stellate Ganglia Block procedure and its dramatic effect on his mental health
· 🛡️ Why the mind, body, and spirit approach to healing is essential
· ❤️ The role of spouses, nonprofits, and community in supporting the veteran journey
· 🚨 A call to action for veterans: Don’t wait to ask for help—your life matters
This episode is raw, honest, and filled with resources for veterans, families, and those who support them. If you're navigating transition, PTS, or looking for hope, this conversation is for you.
🎧 Tune in now on Spotify, YouTube, and Apple Podcasts.
📲 Like, Share, Comment, and Subscribe to help us spread this life-saving message across the veteran community.
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Produced by Security Halt Media
Securepodcast is proudly sponsored by Titan's Arms. Head on to the episode description and check out Titan's Arms today. I'll start off with that. It's the importance of three pillars. Right, like we focus way too much on the physical. The body Like we want to be the best, the fastest, the strongest operator in the team room. We want to be the epitome of the Green Beret, like the physical aspect of body room. We want to be the epitome of the Green Beret, like the physical aspect of body. And then the mind. Like you know, there's a few of us that don't put enough emphasis on that and you know, just hard charging nugs. But the one domain where it's truly like just a few of our guys are really strong in is the spirit, faith, man. So that's one of the things we'll dive into today. But, matt Weaver, welcome to Security Hall man, how's it going?
Speaker 2:Thank, you for having me, brother, it's going fantastic. Yeah, dude, I appreciate you having me on, man, absolutely.
Speaker 1:I love having these conversations, green Berets to Green Berets, talking about our journeys, because they're not. You know, our challenges are no good to us if we can't sit down. You know our our challenges are no good to us If we can't sit down, review them and give the after actions review to our brothers and sisters out there so that they can overcome and they can take those, those, uh, the feedback they can take, like what worked, what didn't work from our journeys, from our struggles, and they can apply it to their, their situation. And the other great thing that I love about your journey is you're also in the fight, you're helping others through a non-profit and we're going to dive into that. But, um, please, my man, take it away, introduce yourself and, uh, let's dive in your journey, man. No, I'd love to.
Speaker 2:I appreciate it. Um, so I guess the quick um. You know where did it begin. I am the, the typical 18X if you will. Went to college, realized the afterlife of college wasn't for me. Walked into a bunch of different recruiters. I had done my research. There's a wild story about I'm colorblind and the Army is the only one that accepts colorblind folks. There's a waiver for that and that's true.
Speaker 2:So sign up for the army and uh, 18 x-ray program. Right, you know, get to go to basic infantry school, airborne. Show up for selection. Uh, you know, do all that. Go through the q course. Come out as 18 delta. Um, obviously. Go back to seven, you know, go to seventh group. Was on the team for uh about four or five years down there. A couple trips to uh, afghanistan came home early for one for the birth of my kid. A couple trips down south, um, just doing the typical team room life, if you will. The ups and downs of that, the, the happy time, the sad times, not to get all cliche. Um, and you know it was a very positive thing. Like I don't, I have zero animosity. I have zero bad things to say about the army. Fast forward to today, or the day of this recording.
Speaker 2:Today is day one of me officially as a veteran you know, that picture that you saw yesterday, that that was a real time picture. My boys were like, hey, dad, you know, this is the last time you're going to be doing this. I was like you're right. When we were driving off base. So, you know, took a picture and the you know, the the family side, because we were talking a little bit before, you know, we came on the the family side when I think of why, you know, why am I getting out? Well, I'm medically retired, so so that's kind of the black and white issue, if you will. But the family side, my time in you know it changed me. You know I officially have a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress.
Speaker 2:I am very open about my story. Um, you know, the more people that we could bring out of the shadows, not just from a nonprofit standpoint, just from a genuine dude to dude standpoint of hey, it's okay to talk about this stuff like that. That is my new mission. You know, I was a uh, I was a medic on the team you know had an opportunity to keep to treat, you know, a few traumatic folks. Thank God None of my stuff was Americans in a combat situation, it was mostly all Afghans and then taking care of sick kids. And so my goal, I guess you could say, with my transition was how do I take that character trait, how do I take my passion not to sound cheesy for helping people as a medic and apply that to my veteran time? And so I do.
Speaker 2:I partnered with a nonprofit called Operator Relief Fund and we'll we'll certainly dive into all of that, but the overarching theme of all of this is like that, that mental health game. And how do we not necessarily beat this thing, but how do we create a space where it's okay to talk about? And you brought up, you know the, the, the, the pillars, right, you know the, the mind, the body and the spirit. To me there's a lot of synergy and there's a lot of similarities between the mind and the body. Right, like, as a medic and I'm sure you saw this in your team room right, if somebody tweaks their ankle, right, what are we going to do?
Speaker 2:We're first, you're probably going to ask your doc like, hey, doc, take a look at this, and then you know, if your doc's smart, they'll treat you or whatever. Or hey, let's go to somebody smarter, right, let's go to Thor, let's go to physical therapy, let's go to a doctor, let's figure out what's wrong, give you the information you need to understand what's wrong and then give you the tools to fix it right. Like that same mentality to our mental health, like why can't post-traumatic stress, why can't operator syndrome which I think is a phenomenal observation and helping to kind of break down the stigmas, like why can't we approach our mental health like we would our physical injuries? And so you know, that's kind of part of, I guess you could say, a goal that I have is, hey, let's, let's normalize having these conversations, but that's, that's kind of where I'm at now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's far easier to to navigate these things while you're still insulated, with 12 brothers around you around you and, by and large, one of the things I've noticed, one of the things that I've dealt with and continue to advocate for, is community building, support groups, building people around you that can support you at your lowest moment, because you're dealing with this while you're in your career. Maybe it's not as omnipresent, maybe it's not at the tip of your mind, but you're, by and large, for the guys that are struggling, we were dealing with a lot of it while we're in the team room. Maybe it was easier to ignore 100%, it was easier to put it on the back burner, but, if we can normalF wants to admit it the vast majority of the candidates and the people that we are recruiting have traits and have trauma that make them perfect for the organization. Preach Sorry Preach, that's a reality.
Speaker 1:That's a reality, preach, and it makes you a perfect. It really does, because you're looking for that mission, you're looking for something greater than you to serve and you want to be validated by being given that shiny responsibility of being the ultimate warrior. So, if we know those characteristics that you're looking for and those psych tests are there. How about we develop some resilience training that really, really helps the guys in the team room so they can go through that? So I will tell you, there are also individuals that don't have that, that don't have that chaos driven mindset, that are still really fucking solid dudes. And I will tell you one of the demographic and we talked about earlier before we started one of the things that makes them so resilient is that their mind. They can still rely on their faith to get them through that, to help them have that clarity of saying like, hey, I'm going to make it through this, I'm going to be all right, 100%. You know, diving into your story, where did you notice things weren't sunshine, lollipops and rainbows?
Speaker 2:So my wife is the one who called me out on my bullshit, and let me all all rewind real quick to show you to describe, like you know who who is what I now affectionately call old Matt. Old Matt was the guy who screamed at his wife and his kids for dumb remedial shit. Um, I was the guy who drank myself to sleep every night. My last drop of alcohol was January 18th of 2024. So a little over a year sober now, um, and that like I'm not here for for that. But old Matt drank myself sleep every night, screaming, Like I walk in the door, you know, from coming back from army work and I'm just scanning for for threats. And what are the threats in a home? Threats in a home are laundry not being done. Threats in a home are my. I have four beautiful boys. You saw a picture of my threats are my kids not being, or my kids not listening to what mom is saying. Threats are my family not doing what I expect them to do, when I really never even communicated that. And so that's what Old Matt was and my wife and I. We were at a outreach event that I had signed us up for, and it was. It was it's called Camp Homefront. It was here in I'm still in the Bragg area, so it was in Moore County and they're talking all about post-traumatic stress and I didn't know that this is what it was going to be about. I thought it was honestly going to be some bullshit marital retreat and I signed my wife and up for it, thinking like good, now she'll think I'm actually trying in our marriage again, cause we had done, we had done marriage counseling the entire time I was at seven through, we had done the MFLAC and great program, nothing bad to say about them. It never really worked. And then, hindsight's, 2020, right, it never really worked as we were never. I was never accepting the actual problem in our marriage, which was, you know, two big thumbs pointing back at me.
Speaker 2:And so, fast forward, I PCS to brag, to go to SWCC, see this retreat called Camp Homefront, sign us up, get there. And it's just speaker after speaker talking about post-traumatic stress and I look over at my wife and I'm like babe, like I'm sorry, I didn't know this is what it was going to be about. I thought we were fishing and camping and, you know, working on love language stuff. I was like we could go and this honest got true story. She looks over and she goes. She says Matt, they just described you Right and you got to understand where I was at at that point.
Speaker 2:Like this, all of these speakers were tier one dudes, like tier one dudes. I'm not that guy, like I'm not that guy. And so having my wife tell me like they just described you, I was like you, what are you talking about? I was like I'm. And I literally said I was like babe, I was like I'm not that guy. And then she kind of laid out, basically, like you drink yourself to sleep, you scream at us for the dumbest shit. And that was just re-articulated from the speakers five minutes ago. And I was like bam, all right, and this, honestly, this was two and a half years ago.
Speaker 2:Um, that, that retreat, and so that that was my hey, something's off, right. And let me back up to team room life. Right, so my time at seventh group, um, like I and and you know I I would like to say, like I was the cool headed 18 Delta and then senior 18 Delta in the team room, like guys still call me to help them with medical shit, like I was, I don't want to say Papa Bear, because that's our team start. But I, you know, I was the hey, let's talk to Matt. Like something's wrong. Let's talk to Matt. Team room life. I was, I was fine, right, I even fast forward, and I know I'm jumping around, but fast forward.
Speaker 2:Once I got linked up with Operator Relief Fund, I started doing all these briefs and I would just because I was working at the 18th Delta Schoolhouse. So the refresher, you know, every two weeks 40 new medics, 40 experienced medics, would come through for refreshment and I would give a brief about post-traumatic stress in my story. I'm not going to name drop, but my senior was in that room for my very first brief and when I shared my story I was just like you had no idea and he's like, no, no idea. But so back to that event. Operator relief fund was at that event and they were talking about this procedure called a dual stellate ganglia block and they were kind of joking about it. You know they're calling it like. You know, if you're an asshole, get you know. If you're an asshole, get you know, sign up, get the asshole shot. Just trying to like, make light of this obviously intense, serious topic. And so I sign up, right, because you know, my wife is not I don't want to say guilt tripping me, but my wife is having the courage to confront me on what I had been doing to the family and the man that I had become, and she shined a giant flashlight on what I was doing. And so I sign up for the dual stellar ganglia block and we'll get into specifics of that but operator relief fund paid for the whole thing. It's completely like off post, private pay treatment. You don't need behavioral health, nothing. I literally signed up at that retreat.
Speaker 2:About a month later I was flown down to Tampa, florida and I had a dual steli ganglia block. That 100% changed the trajectory of my life, the calm, the calming sensation, the anxiety I had, the aha moment that sometimes people talk about like whoosh away, completely whoosh away. And so for me it was. It was monumental. You know, I fly back to North Carolina after getting both sides done and the one of the real tests was going to be walking back into my house, right Cause, up until up until that procedure, right, like, yeah, okay, now we're talking about post-traumatic stress and I'm like, yeah, okay, I see it Like I'm, I'm on the you know, the acceptance train if you will, but it's still there, right? I was still drinking every night up until the procedure. Still drinking every night. Um, and so, you know, go down to Tampa, get it. Come home, call my wife because I flew into Raleigh we live north of Bragg and I'm like, hey, babe, I feel, you know, I feel good, I'm coming home Takes about an hour to get home.
Speaker 2:For me, the real test was going to be walking back into my house, and I walk into my house the exact same way every time Garage door goes up walk through my garage, the initial door goes into your laundry room and then past, like, the threshold of the laundry room and you know hashtag, open space house, going through the garage, open the laundry room door and then my wife met me right there. She met me in the laundry room and we hug and, for as small and as trivial as this sounds, we embraced for probably a minute. We hadn't done that in years, right, like we hadn't done that in years, right, like we hadn't done that in years. Our physical relationship was very, you know not I want to say emotionalist, but it was very, it was very plain, and so the fact that her and I could embrace and hug for a minute in that laundry room, without me wanting to push away, without me wanting to be like, let me get in this house, let me see what's fucked up. Yeah, I had zero, I had zero of that, so we let go.
Speaker 2:I walk into my house and guess what laundry's on the floor? Toys are everywhere my kids are being kids and I have zero reaction to it. I look at it, I acknowledge it, I'm like, yeah, there's laundry. Like, yeah, dishes are still not done, and I have zero reaction to it. And so I was like, holy shit, this stuff is like this. Is it this stella gangly block? Is it? You know?
Speaker 2:Get linked up with, follow on coaching and counseling, dive into that, start really identifying, like, what my triggers are and really giving me like the tools to you know, live in this new calm space. Right, cause, as you come into what I call kind of like the mental health journey, right, the triggers aren't going away. Right, your life stressors are still going to be there. The laundry is still not going to get done. Your kids are still going to be there. The laundry is still not going to get done. Your kids are still going to be my beautiful little assholes. Like that's not going away.
Speaker 2:But how we react to those we can control, yes, but with with an overreactive sympathetic nervous system, with the monster of post-traumatic stress running our lives, we're always going to react to how you know. Our one way it's, you know, chaos. That's how we're going to react, yeah, and so the stellate ganglia block really targets that sympathetic nervous system and it brings your tachometer way down and it gives you a space to actually be able to take in, you know, other stimulation and actually process it. And that's what the shots do. And then, when you pair that, like I said, with the follow-on coaching, completely changed the trajectory of where I'm at now. You know, I told you I stopped drinking If I was to get my kids to come up here.
Speaker 2:That picture that I posted is a testament. Like my four boys are with dad and they're all smiling. If you look back at the pictures of my family before, then, not everybody's smiling in a picture with dad, least of all dad. You know what I mean. Yeah, 100 man. Um, and so that's once I get my shots, like I, I drank the kool-aid. Like I'm like this is this stuff's amazing. Um, that night when I was in tampa. So after my first shot, my first side, I had my right side. That's when I had my aha moment. That night I sent an email to my team and, like I said, I'm not going to name drop anybody here, but you know Charlie Company Shit, I'm a veteran, charlie Company, 1st Battalion. I sent an email to my team Because in 2019, the deployment I came home early on is when we lost Mike.
Speaker 1:Sorry, in 2019, the deployment I came home early on is when we lost Mike and sorry, no dude. Yeah, that was a tough one, man.
Speaker 2:That was a tough one, yeah, like the whole like like every everybody knew him, like everybody was there and, as a medic, like there's nothing not to not to go in this rabbit hole, but like it's not. Like oh, I, you know I could have saved him. Like no, absolutely not, I have zero. No, just not being there for my team. Like it sucks yeah.
Speaker 1:And so, yeah it, that was. That was a really shitty. Yeah, watch it. I mean a the proximity of the Christmas, watching from the opposite end, like that was a really shitty way to lose mike, like that was a really shitty day, yeah.
Speaker 2:And so when, uh, when the team redeployed back to florida, I did what I thought was the right thing to do and I was like all right boys, like I'm going into medic mode, like I wasn't there at the time, I'm going medic mode. And I brought p3 into the room, I brought mflax into the team room, I paraded all these counselors and therapists around and I looked at every one of the teammates in the eye and I was like all of you go, like, sign up and you are all going to get help, all the while ignoring myself, right. And that's when just shit went, fucking horrible.
Speaker 1:We all do that. I was doing the same thing. I was volunteering with Jackie, jackie the m flack to do the peer-to-peer, like it was me and pick me and pick. We're like volunteering to be like the two, two for the company. Yeah, I'll be a peer-to-peer support and I'm like I'm literally hanging out by a thread, dude, like I was actively suicidal in that time period and I'm like I'll take this on like you put on a fucking mask, dude. Yeah, you put on a mask and you sit there. I'm like I'm gonna help everybody else. Meanwhile you're driving home thinking, hmm, you know, if I just go a little bit faster and just bypass this exit, go to destin, just see if I can launch this fucking truck, dude, oh, and their response time to save you would be really slow too, see if I can launch this fucking truck Dude.
Speaker 2:Oh, and their response, their response time to save you would be really slow too, cause that that bitch is out there in the middle of the middle of the waterway and I wouldn't survive cause I am not dive qualified.
Speaker 1:There you go, three, five, three, five. Tried their damnedest to teach me how to swim. Dude, I love that, but it's, it's so true, man. Some of the people that are are the most on point with highlighting resources, highlighting the things to go do they're the ones that truly need to get pulled off to the side and just just ask are you okay? Yeah, how are you doing? Yeah, but we don't realize it while we're in it. I'm not getting nobody. Nobody said anything.
Speaker 2:No, no. And so that you know, after my first shot, I sent an email to my team and I'm like, I was like, look, dudes, I found it. I was like I found what I have been, you know, trying to help you guys with. And I just big, big, long email of all these resources and connecting with what I have been doing up to that point, not everybody's done it right.
Speaker 2:Like, at the end of the day, this is their own journey. Some of them have. But so, after getting my shots, doing the coaching, and I was like, all right, this is it about that time. So I don't know, like six, seven months post, sgb is when I had the heart to heart with, uh, my primary care at Clark clinic, Uh, and they're, and they're like, cause I had my back fused in 2020. And then that's that's one of the main reasons why I came to SWCC. I was like, look, I'm not trying to get out of the army, I love the army. I believe I can still benefit. You know, I believe I can be of benefit to the army. So I was like I'll go to SWCC, came to SWCC because, you know, hashtag not operational. And then the back started being back and the doctors were like, look, you know, you had the surgery, nerve pain still there. Your MRIs magically obviously did not get any better. They're like you know you are. You know I don't know what the regulation is but, you're not qualified for service anymore.
Speaker 2:We're going to med board you.
Speaker 1:And so I was like all right game on game time. This episode is brought to you by Titan Sarms. Head on over to titansarmscom and buy a stack today. Use my code CDENNY10 to get your first stack. I recommend the lean stack too. Start living your best life.
Speaker 2:Titan Sarms to start living your best life. Titan's arms, no junk, no bullshit, just results. And then I started looking really into like the transition space and like how do I do this right? And you know, I, I I by no means I don't want to say like I'm a success story of transition, but the only thing that I did that I see other people not doing is I asked for help, and there are probably a total of 10 different organizations that I reached out to to be like hi, I'm med boarding. You know I have 13 years in. What do I do? And they are there. And it's not just the mental health space, it's like the employment space. You know how to do resumes. Like the help is out there. We just have to swallow our pride and ask for help.
Speaker 2:And in a great, what I'll call starter is like go to your peers right, cause you have the private news network. Well, you know, the E7, e8 Green Beret News Network is a little worse at times because we're all super overconfident. Like, yeah, do this man, this will work. But that's where I started, right, and my peers within the 18th Delta community at the schoolhouse a lot of them were med board and I was like, hey, dude, who is the first person you talk to after you were told you know you're not qualified? And they're like, oh, go hit up this person at UCSAC, go hit up this person at Care Coalition, and that's just starts it, right. And then you build your it's organizations. That helped me along the way, cause I had a million questions. Right, I'm a medic and I'm going through a med board. Nope 18 deltas don't know what we're talking about in a med board. Med board's a legal process. Yes, right, that's a legal process. I have no idea what that is. And so, yes, I can, you know, translate the medical jargon on all of my medical forms, but it's a legal process. And so there's people who are smarter than me about that and I would go talk to them.
Speaker 2:And one thing I want to bring up about the whole transition is your spouse. And spouses are a forgotten hero, I think, far too often in our lives. And it was my wife who helped me, who called me on my bullshit, who kickstarted me to be like, hey, you're struggling, you need to get help. And then the transition space right, there are organizations out there that all the cool shit we get, they focus on the spouses. One of them is called the steps foundation. Look it up. They focus purely on soft spouses but they do everything from employment help to mental health to functional medicine help, and it's a nonprofit that does that. My wife has had a fantastic experience with that, and so the moral of that story is we are going to get bombarded as a service member with, like the Army TAP program and go to this brief and go to that brief right Like we're going to get thrown into all of it. Don't forget your wife, don't forget your spouse.
Speaker 1:I talked about this exact issue a few episodes ago with Operation Rural Honor. You put a lot of focus on the individual but by and large that Green Beret, that paratrooper, that 88 Mike especially if they're med boarding they've got so much going through their mind, they've got so much on their plate and I will 100% say they probably have some cognitive and mental health issues that keep them from fucking focusing. And you expect them to take notes, you expect them to just take another fucking sit down with a firehose session and retain all this information. Make it open for the spouse, allow them to bring the spouse, allow it to be a family transition plan because by and large, the person that's been there from day one doing the finances, doing the budgeting, is a spouse. It is 100 the spouse. And if you prioritize the family, not just the individual, you're going to have greater success.
Speaker 1:I mean, one of the biggest things that I absolutely hate the TAPS program. I don't care. It should never be a sergeant major who never had a civilian job leading the discussion on transition. That should not be the person, I don't care, who hooked him up. I don't care. And this is the problem. This is across the board that has been identified. I saw it in Florida. Going through Eglin. I saw individuals that had never held a or maintain a position outside of the military, and then they're the one teaching about transition. It doesn't work. Hire somebody that knows the importance of having a virtual network.
Speaker 1:A big shout out to one of one of the greatest allies to Special Forces Regiment, dan Rayburn. If you are a soft guy and you hear that Dan Rayburn's coming to the compound to do a military pivot brief because he hates the word transition, to do a military pivot brief because he hates the word transition, do everything you can to sit into one of those briefs. Sit in and listen to what Dan Rayburn has to say, and I'll give him another plug because he's one of the guys I produce a podcast for. Check him out online. The guy knows what he's talking about. Specifically when it comes to soft talent, I know you went through the same problem, matt. I had the same identity crisis. I'm like I'm just a green beret. Nobody thinks I'm worth anything. I'm like you'll be surprised a lot of the tools, a lot of the resources, a lot of the things you've done already in your life is ethical on the outside. I don't care what the fuck you say?
Speaker 2:linkedin people like you can argue this all the fucking time.
Speaker 1:You can argue this, but the the reality is I've got friends that work at fucking ESPN, fox, fucking Apple, google, and let me just tell you they got in there with no fucking skill sets or schools. There's one guy. They're like we don't give a fuck, what, what, what you bring, we like you, having talked to you, we want you on there. And then realizing later on, like hey, you're going to need to get this degree, don't worry, we'll give you time to go get this degree. Like that's fucking awesome.
Speaker 2:Think high level, like what is a Green Beret? A Green Beret is a leader that can communicate effectively and work well with others and is trainable. Yep, that's key word. Who would not want? Who would not want that in an organization? What do you mean? I can take a motivated, hardworking individual who all I have to do is give them a little bit of training, certification, degree whatever, and they're going to thrive in our environment, because nowadays most corporate life is small teams Like that's a win-win. You know what I mean? I will say this I think something that we fail at is translating our translating that to the corporate world. Like I joke, because when I started with Operator Relief Fund, I swear a lot.
Speaker 1:And like it's a perfect fucking place to do it, my man.
Speaker 2:It's a team, but they would always be like you know. Yep, Matt's on it, it's getting passionate again. He's dropping, you know, F-bombs and shit, and I'm like.
Speaker 1:You're right, I can't do that, thank you. That's why I love working with the Special Forces Foundation. It's nothing but green berets and gold star trousers Shout out to them.
Speaker 2:Love it, love it, dude.
Speaker 1:It's true, man, know your audience, know where you're going. This applies, I get it. There's a lot of great talent in the veteran community, a lot of great talent in the army, military period. Don't discount or undersell your service. Understand that you have great potential. If it means you have to go to school, go to school If it means you have to frigging, but at the very least, understand that taps is not going to fix itself. So it's up to you to figure out how to link up with organizations like the Honor Foundation, how to link up with a virtual coach that can help you.
Speaker 1:Transition is a beast for everybody, whether it's early retirement because of medical issues, a full 20, 32 year career or you just ETS? Don't let transition happen to you. Be fucking forward thinking and lean into it. I got a lot of help through LinkedIn, a lot of help, and I still get a lot of help through LinkedIn. It sometimes shocks me, man, the two biggest things in my life God and LinkedIn.
Speaker 1:It's love it, your faith and being willing to reach out and connect with people. I don't get it. Linkedin can be a cesspool of individuals just with the most wacky takes on life, but the network feature being able to reach out to people that you've never met and just ask them for info, insight or just a virtual meet is huge.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and how many of those people say yes, like every single one More than not right More than not, right More than not. Yeah, it's networking man, it's building a network. Like yeah, we are trained to do that by, with and through, like that's what we do.
Speaker 1:I've only, I've only had one really bad encounter reaching out to somebody. I always make fun of it Because, like, the individual is a service member and they're in a public light and you would think like and this is very early on, what I'm trying to figure out like a podcasting and getting getting people on the show and they, they, cool, guide me. You know, I'm kind of too fucking busy. I've reached out to individuals that were, you know, higher tier, like individuals with just pretty fucking out there. They've been willing to frigging, come on or be willing to point me in the direction where I needed help. So it's like look, if anything work. No. If you, if you reach out to somebody, don just stop and, uh, when you don't get the reply, reach out one more time. Work to that no, rejection is is part of the process. Get to that. No. And if somebody's an asshole, just laugh, laugh it off at the end of the day, like friggin it's it's.
Speaker 1:It costs nothing to be a good human being and more often than not, I will help people, and that's why I say that I'm a dog shit entrepreneur. I will spend hours, hours helping somebody through their sticking point, whether it's production, audio issue or something and I realized that, hey, that's a consultancy you can bill. You can bill for that, but why I can make a friend, you know. I have to think about that.
Speaker 1:I have to think about that a lot when I, when people are like cause I do reach out, I talk I have, you know, a group of people that mentor me and it's like, hey, you should be charging for that, you should be billing for that. It's like, yeah, well, I kind of wish I had that when I was coming up. I kind of wish I had that when I was getting out. So if, if I can just be a good human being to balance things out, I'll I'll take a loss. I'll take a loss on the profitability space. And that's when some people are like that's why you're still a dog shit entrepreneur. I'm like I get it, I get it, but being a good dude still has value in this world. And that's why I say to you out there, like if you're struggling and somebody's a dick to you, don't let that turn you spiteful, Don't let that become a hate in your engine.
Speaker 1:Just use that as more motivation to be a good person, because someday, when you have that great job, when you have that great position, someone's going to reach out and remember the power of being a good person. It's worth it. It's worth being a good person so you can go to sleep at night and understand like, hey, you might not have made that money that you could have done if you had charged for a consultation rate. You might not have made a few bucks here and there, but at the end of the day you were a good person and that's what matters more, because your name's out there. Now you're in the civilian world Like that's all you got, man. So, yeah, that's like transition has to be something that you work towards and put a lot of sweat. You can't just meet a lot of people that just want it to happen to them and be like, oh, job will just fall in, maybe, but I wouldn't bank on maybe. Man, yeah.
Speaker 2:No one program army program I will give a a tip of the cap to Skillbridge. So once I so that's how I kind of formally got connected with Operate Relief Fund, right, I get, I do my, I get my procedure and I'm on my mental health journey and I reach out to Operate Relief Fund and I'm like, hey, I have an audience right now within my day job at the army, if you will is like, can I start giving briefs and just share my story? And they're like, yeah, absolutely. Then I have the med board discussion and doctors are like, hey, you know, six to nine months you're out of the army, ready to go. And so then I reached back out to operator relief fund and I was like, hey, there's this thing called skill bridge. And I talked to a bunch of buddies who had done them and there's like you know what I'll call like the, the soft version of a skill bridge. And then there's the skill bridge, and so we'll just say I did a internship, I set it up with the operator relief fund and you know, if you are in the transitioning window, there is that opportunity out there. Now I know the army just kind of changed regulations on the timeframe. I want to don't quote me on this, but I think like seven and above, they just shortened it to like two months. They did, don't quote me, go look at the right. Okay, yeah, they did.
Speaker 2:And so I had the opportunity, because I had a supportive chain of command, because I was incredibly, incredibly upfront with what I was doing and I had a six month skill bridge Um, and this was before they did the reg change. And so I did a skill bridge with the operator relief fund and it was phenomenal. It was I had real training, right, like I went through formal CRM training, I went through formal suicide prevention training. They sent me to a three-day conference on if somebody is actively suicidal, how do you appropriately treat that, and it's called the assist program. So they sent me through all that training, you know, and then gave me what I'll call like business professionalism interaction, right, because I'm interacting with all the staff at Operate Relief Fund on a day-to-day basis as an intern, and so that was phenomenal.
Speaker 2:And then, once we got halfway or so through my SkillBridge internship with them, then we started having a serious conversation of like all right, matt is getting out of the Army, I'm med board, and like what does this look like and, because I started those conversations early on, the transition into a full-time paid role with them was very smooth. So look at, look at skill bridge, look at internship programs. They're, they're fantastic. That is the only one, that is the one like army brief, a part of the tap thing. Go to that one, go to the csp, go to the csp brief. Um, just so you learn, like what is the framework of what, what this is? Because you can do full tilt csp or you sign up for, like you know, a truck driver company through the army they pay you or you could go the internship route and like it's out there, it's available.
Speaker 1:This episode is also brought to you by Precision Wellness Group. Getting your hormones optimized shouldn't be a difficult task, and Dr Taylor Bosley has changed the game. Head on over to precisionwellnessgroupcom. Enroll and become a patient today. Yeah, a big shout out to socom care coalition. I'm actually a registered a business with them, so if you're interested in doing an internship for security health media, I will teach you the ropes of audio production, video production live and I mean, like I've got the army navy football game coming up, I'll be up there for two of my podcasts. So yeah, yeah, if you're interested, hit up your SoCalMK Coalition. All my information's there Come on SecurityHop Media.
Speaker 1:It's about having interns that are from the soft community. It's fucking awesome. It's been really rewarding. It allowed me to do a lot of cool things. The first intern that I had was Brindle, a good buddy of mine, also a chief. That was a fun time. So, yeah, did he even show up to work? Always on time, always professional, yeah, that's it. I mean, honestly, when I, when I first had him, it allowed me to do my digital magazine for a long time. It's just yeah, it's.
Speaker 1:Internships are tricky because it's not a constant thing. So whenever I get an intern, things. I'm able to be more creative, I'm able to do multiple projects, and it's it's something that I love doing, because this is something that you can do. You can really do this you can have if you're passionate about the medium, if you're passionate about the stuff, or it can be something that you add on to the new entrepreneurial endeavor.
Speaker 1:Now more than ever, stories need to be told. Why not do it with your own podcast or start your own production company? There's room for everybody to eat at this table. I'm not a gatekeeper. I will happily teach you everything you need to be the next great influencer or video guy or look, it's just now. If you're interested, hit up SoCalCareCoalition. Tell them you want to work with Security Out Media and I will gladly bring you on. I am a stickler. You will have to show up on time and do your work, but I promise you I will only bust your balls just a fraction of the time, it's like 06, out front of your house, in formation with your water source yeah, it's an amazing program and there's so many opportunities, man, so many opportunities.
Speaker 2:Be willing to dream, fuck man, that's something out of your comfort zone. You know what I mean. Like get out of your comfort zone, try something. Yeah, like try something yeah, dude it's.
Speaker 1:You spent so much time in uniform doing the same thing, doing something that was great and wonderful. But your next chapter, be willing to adventure and do something new. Yeah, at least for all. You're going through transition. What you go into an internship or skill bridge into doesn't have to be the end all be all, be passionate about it, make sure you enjoy it. But, man, get out there and be willing to explore. I get it. It's scary. Transition is a beast for everybody. You're going to have to overcome that fear.
Speaker 1:But, like I tell everybody, whether you're a green beret, paratrooper, mortarman, regular S1 admin clerk, at some point in your career you had to face the unknown. You had to go in and face something scary and daunting. Whether it was just basic airborne school, or maybe it was the embassy chamber, whatever it was, you had to face something and be scared, yeah, and you face and you went into it. You went head first into it. Yeah, be willing to do it again. Be willing to understand that this is a scary process, a lot of unknowns, but you're going to come out of it on the other side, just fine. Look, it's not about being hesitant. Don't hesitate at the door, don't be in the fatal funnel. Go boldly into the unknown, getting and digging to that corner and get to work.
Speaker 1:You've got a lot of people on the outside. I always say this, often duplicated, often replicated on a number of shows. Now the team room is greater on the outside. It's far bigger on the outside. Reach out to me, reach out to Matt, reach out to anybody you see on a TV show, podcast, youtube. If they wore the uniform, chances are they are willing to connect with you and give you information. I don't care how big they are. I guarantee you they'll reach out to you though. I guarantee because I know I have had the same fears and I reached out to some individuals I thought were greater than life and they replied back and they share their insights, they share their tips and, man, it feels good to know that that bond you share because you wore the uniform, because you serve, really does matter. So be willing to get out there, matt, in this point in your journey. Man, like, how's it been working for this nonprofit? Oh?
Speaker 2:amazing, like absolutely amazing. So, talking about, like getting outside your comfort zone, right During my internship I did. I'll say I wore like a medic hat, right. All I did was talk to guys, or, you know, so, officially, operator relief fund pays for what's called a dual stellar ganglia block for current and former special operations and intelligence community operators, like that's what they do. And so during the internship, all I did was I would talk to our participants, right, and it would be a virtual call, explaining our organization, explaining the process. Sometimes people were at what I'll call like the beginning of their mental health journey, were at what I'll call like the beginning of their mental health journey. And so, yes, I would open up, share my story. And it's amazing because the commonalities that we find, right, even when I was talking a little bit, I saw your head going north, south. I'm like, yeah, you fucking get this.
Speaker 1:You talk to a million people.
Speaker 2:We all have the same fucking story and so the more you could get that story out there. And then people are like, all right, yeah, hey, I'd love to sign up, right. And then you get other people who are like I've had a single Stella Ganglia block before. It didn't really work. And then I'll get into more of like the differences between the single and the double, but going to like the comfort zone. Now I do fundraising.
Speaker 2:I am the director of development responsible for bringing in private donations to this nonprofit. So you talk about, like, what skills do I have to do that? On paper, none. But what I would argue and what the you know, my boss, you know the leadership of our company, see, is development is all about relationships, right, and I am comfortable in my own skin to share my story and so I can effectively articulate the mission of what we do and then I can talk intelligently about, hey, how your donation is going to help us.
Speaker 2:But Operator Relief Fund is an amazing nonprofit. We have four partner providers across the country. We have one in Tampa, florida, one in Cleveland Ohio, one in Provo, utah, and one in San Diego, california and we as an organization have identified these clinics to be in line with our mission and in line with our values. And all four do what's called a dual stellate ganglia block. So it's a injection of medicine around your stellate ganglia, which is about here. Dual for us is just bilateral, so you're going to get two injections in one procedure period. Operator Relief Fund pays for the procedure, pays for the flight to get you to our provider and we pay for the hotel. It's basically a four-day TDY trip travel day on the front end travel day. On the back end, two days of procedure. Operator relief fund pays for the entire thing. Insurance does not cover this, va doesn't do it. To date and if anybody's out there, correct me to date I've yet to find a single military treatment facility that will do a dual, and so that's truly why we exist. We give access to this healing modality that has been proven to work that individuals otherwise do not have access to Procedure. This dual stellaganglia block is part one.
Speaker 2:Right, because, just as I shared my story, the shot was fantastic. It was great, but it's what you do after the shot. It's what you do during that grace and calm period that really pays the dividends. And so our program is completely comprehensive. We have an entire resource department that's going to connect you with either counseling or therapy. We have an entire mindfulness curriculum that we do that's cohort based, and so think about it like hey, you get the shot, you get some immediate relief. It really starts to target the symptoms of post-traumatic stress that are associated with that elevated sympathetic nervous system. Like running around like this. That's what the shot works on. Pair you with follow on. That's where the trajectory changes, man, like that's where the life changes. Anybody who's ever interested in getting one shameless plug.
Speaker 2:Operatorelieffundorg we serve current and former SOFs, so anybody who's worked for SOCOM and the intelligence community, and spouses. We fully fund spouse treatment as well and, honestly, we kind of encourage it. A lot of times, I'll be honest, the spouses are like, oh no, I don't have, I'm good, it's just my fucked up husband. And then I'll tell them straight up. I'll be like, hey, there's this entire thing called secondary PTSD, post-traumatic stress. Right, and normally I've already had a conversation with a service member to be like, hey, I'm going to be queuing up your wife here for a little bit. I'm going to share a personal story. I was like, hey, you know, I screamed at my wife, I screamed at my kids. Can you imagine living in that environment that I created? Well, that in itself is a source of trauma, right? Like, let's be real, I am a source of trauma for my family. I was part of secondary post-traumatic stress. And so when you start articulating that to say nothing of childhood trauma that the spouse could have, to say nothing of adulthood trauma that the spouse could have Now you throw in the service member like, hey, you know, hey, you know, could we all use a little reflection, a little relief, probably, but that's what we do and we do it very well.
Speaker 2:To my knowledge, we are the only organization that actually has a process. So what you do is either sign up on our website that's the easiest way you can go to request support you fill out the form and you're going to connect with one of our team members. They're going to reach out. We're going to set up a virtual call where we explain the process. Right, we are not the doctors. I'm not here to, neither the team is here to diagnose you with anything. We're going to explain the process, what it entails. We're not going to take your unit information down other than what is your SOF affiliation. We're not going to take your DOD ID number, right, I don't need to know what your TRICARE is. We're not using that.
Speaker 2:This is an off the record, so to speak. You know self-help for all intents and purposes program. Now, one caveat to all of that we are becoming much more widely known, and so there are formal military units that are very well aware of us and you know if they may send you to behavioral health and you may go get a single stela ganglia block. Ask them about Operator Relief Fund. Chances, chances are. I bet they're familiar with us and they may say, hey, yeah, you know, go check out these people. And so if you're not currently in behavioral health, reach out. If you are in behavioral health, dive in, do what they're talking about and then be an advocate for yourself. Right, if they bring up stella ganglia block, say, hey, I want to know about this dual thing, but that's what we do.
Speaker 2:We treat anywhere between 20 to 35 individuals a month. That's procedures that we pay for Putting on my development hat. Each one of those costs us $3,500. And it's a commitment that we made to the individuals that we don't turn anybody away. And so if you're out there listening, I'm going to ask you for two things. One if you're an individual who's struggling and you don't know where to turn kind of like we talked about the transition you just ask questions, come, talk to us about Operate Relief Fund and mental health and let's discuss it. Maybe if Stella Ganglia Block is a viable treatment option for you. That's number one. If you need help, reach out, we will help you. Number two if you're genuinely listening and you are behind the cause of soft mental health and you want to partner with an organization that is actually making an impact.
Speaker 2:Right, our job is not to create awareness. Our job is to connect people with actual healing modalities that have been proven to work, that they otherwise do not have access to. And if you have the capability to partnership with us, I welcome your support. We have a bunch of, obviously fundraising events, but, at the end of the day, the biggest need is simply direct gifts to keep 20 to 35 operators that we serve every single month in the funnel, and that's kind of the one over the world of what we do, what we are. We do have all sorts of social medias, right. We're on YouTube, linkedin, instagram, facebook. It's all me Not that my face is all there, but I'm the guy doing it on my phone.
Speaker 2:So if you DM us, you're going to get me, but it's circling back to like you know how's my time with operate really fun? Um, it's amazing. It's amazing to have an organization that actually does make an impact, because when I started got the whole hey, you're going to get out, I did. I reflected on what the heck am I going to do? And I think a lot of us default to like fine, and I'm not dogging any of this, but a lot of us default to like, oh, I'm going to be, you know, uh, uh, I'm going to go get my series seven, I'm going to go be a trader, I'm going to go work on wall street, I'm going to go be a project manager Right, and I'm not shitting on that. If that's what you do and you're supporting your family, god bless you do it. But when I that's what I tried to do in the army and that's what the operator relief fund has allowed me to continue to do, like, at the end of the day, yup, you know, it gives me a paycheck that keeps your roof over my head. But I genuinely enjoy showing up to work. I enjoy, you know, talking to people, literally.
Speaker 2:After this, I'm going to be heading up to the DC area to go talk to some more people about mental health and um and and the more conversations like this, and I know you do this for a living cause.
Speaker 2:You have the podcast and so, like you and anybody else who does a podcast about mental health, I genuinely mean this. Like that is the tip of the spear. You guys are helping to break down the stigma associated with mental health. You guys are helping to break down the stigma associated with mental health. You guys are helping to connect individuals to resources, to organizations like mine that actually make impacts and like the movements building right Like there is, I do see, kind of a paradigm change of mental health is not as taboo as it once was. Right, like it's okay to talk about it and so like genuinely tip of the cap to you and what you're doing, because from the you know boots on the ground organizations it makes an impact Like we do. We absolutely have people reach out, cause we always ask them how'd you hear about us? Like, oh, a podcast. It's like, are you kidding me? That's amazing.
Speaker 1:So yeah, orf Operate Relief.
Speaker 2:Farm it's going well.
Speaker 1:It's an honor and a privilege to have you here, man. It is awesome to have another C17 dude, another brother from our company, in the fight. I first came up in A17 no, fucking no shade to my A17 guys. It was a great company, it was a great time, lots of brothers there. But, dude C17, there is something in the water. That company, every individual there like it, is. It is just awesome seeing where you're at and seeing another dude in the fight and that makes me more excited and more hyped up to continue doing this, knowing that I got another fucking C-17 dude in the same fight picking up the rate of fire.
Speaker 1:And that's what we need man Excellence throughout the board. People willing to get involved with good nonprofits are reputable. In fact, the Watchmen is out there. There's a new organization now that is putting nonprofits out to hang if you're not reputable. So shout out to that guy who is going after some nonprofits that are not doing the right thing and spending more money on flying out to Las Vegas and partying. Yep, yep, yep. So it's good. Get involved in nonprofits. Know what you're getting into. Do your due diligence. Sometimes you can't I was hustled by one, but I'm glad they got exposed. Know what you're getting into. Do your due diligence. Sometimes you can't um, I was. I was hustled by one, but I'm glad they got exposed. You're not on my website anymore. I will not be referring people to you, because you spent out of every dollar that came through there. You spent 32 cents, 32 cents on programs, on programs, 32 cents I on now.
Speaker 2:I'll tell you this right now. So, operator Relief Fund, we have three family foundation. We have three we call them angel donors who pay our entire overhead. So we have zero brick and mortar. There's five people who work for our organization. Everybody's remote. We have three family foundations that pay for all of our overhead and so when I, as director of development, ask you for money, 100% of your gift goes directly to the individuals we serve. Like that's black and white. Now, yeah, awareness is cool, right, and I think there's a lot of big organizations that do awareness and those are great, but I would always challenge people to really look at what are the ones actually? What? All you know boots on the ground? Who's actually making an impact? Who's actually connecting people with services? Who's actually paying for stuff as opposed to other stuff? You know what?
Speaker 1:I mean yeah, yeah man it's good to be involved with good people that are doing great things. Matt, I can't thank you enough for being here today, for sharing your story, and you were an amazing dude on a team. Again, just happy as shit to have you here, man, Having another boy out here doing great things. Proud of you, man, Absolutely proud of you. You're a testament of what can be achieved if you focus on yourself and your family and really do the work to heal. So if you guys are out there and listening, do me a favor, pause the episode. It's about the end. Anyways, just go to episode description, click those links. Damn it. Head on over to opera relief fund get some help. I know if you're listening to this you probably need some help. Or get that dual still a gangland block. I helped me when I was going through my hardships. I didn't get the dual. I went to Eglin and had to go through like five of those motherfuckers doing every, everybody, everybody.
Speaker 1:I've talked to the dual reset instantly. It's because they're pros, man. They know what the they know what they're doing. So be willing to go out there, ask for help. You're going to get a trip, you're going to be able to relax and you're going to come home the best version of yourself, 100%. So please go hit those links up, connect with Matt on all socials and thank you all for listening. I really appreciate it. We are climbing on Instagram. I'm officially a macro influencer. Thank you all for following, for the memes and podcast reels. Do me one more favor Head on over to YouTube, hit that subscribe. Hit that. Follow on Instagram. Facebook, leave us a review on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. I know I would really appreciate it if you could do it, and Matt would like it too. It will help him, too when this episode airs. Thank you all for listening. See you all next time. Until then, take care. Securepodcast is proudly sponsored by Titan's Arms. Head over to the episode description and check out Titan's Arms today.
